News Report #2

“Thai Man Arrested for Internet Comments on King”
The Associated Press, International Herald Tribune
January 15, 2009
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/15/asia/AS-Thailand-Monarchy.php

A man in Bangkok, Thailand named Suwicha Thakhor was arrested Wednesday for supposedly posting insulting messages regarding the Thai monarchy on the Internet, Thakhor denied the allegations. Thai police claim that Thakhor posted messages on some undisclosed websites that broke the lese majeste law which is basically a law in Thailand that forbids citizens to speak ill of the monarchy, the penalty for breaking it is three to fifteen years in prison. This law has been enforced more and more in the past years in order to keep the monarchy strong and safe from rebellion. Suwicha Thakhor is only one of many facing charges because of the lese majeste law another is Ji Ungpakorn, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University who is campaigning to abolishe the lese majeste law.

I found this article very interesting because we have a similar situation in the United States. We may not have an actual law that states “you must not speak poorly of the President of the United States,” however you can be questioned, have your home and personal property searched etc. if it is found out that you have made a threat against the President. In Thailand they claim that the lese majeste law is in place to create stability and reinforce the monarchy, but it will only bring about uprising from that oppression and probably eventually democracy because look at how the American Revolution began. You were not to speak ill of the King no matter what he did. Now it is easier for people to get caught in these laws, that deny free speech because of the internet and the other digital media we have. They could do podcast, post on a blog, post on a social network, even create their own website and simply state their opinion. Their opinion on their monarch might just land them in jail though.